


An Inauspicious Meeting

by Pareidolia



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:37:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pareidolia/pseuds/Pareidolia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Artemis and Butler's first encounter doesn't go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Inauspicious Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thleeny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thleeny/gifts).



Butler is the latest in a long line, and he is ready to make his family proud. He graduated the top of his class, he is in peak condition, and he has waited a long time to take his rightful place by the next Fowl scion. So many missions, so many other assignments - all educational, all beneficial - but they were never his destination. This is what they were made for, Uncle likes to say, to serve the Fowls without even death to part them.

He’s in the Fowl Estate dojo when his uncle calls to tell him Angeline Fowl’s in labor. It started on the plane - in from Paris, she’s already been shopping for clothes in anticipation of losing the baby weight - and they’re en route to Sisters of Mercy. Butler’s training holds while he’s told to stay with Juliet; he’ll be called when his principal ( _his_ , and he feels the blue diamond on his skin like he hasn’t in years) is ready to meet him. 

Thirty-eight hours later - he is grateful labor is beyond his comprehension - Butler is let into the Sisters of Mercy maternity ward. He’s spent the night pacing by the phone, but he's quiet as he approaches. His principal is only a few hours old, peaceful in his father’s arms while Angeline Fowl rests. Anticipation weighs on his shoulders - this is who he’ll spend the rest of his life with.

Artemis is awake, alert and curious, tiny limbs shifting restlessly, hands clutching at empty air like he isn’t sure what it is. Dark hair wisps under his cap. Protectiveness surges and Butler lets it wash over him before he leans down to greet his new principal. Artemis’s eyes are newborn blue when they fix on him.

Then they water and Artemis starts to cry.

\--

“He hates you,” Juliet informs him, and Butler can’t help the flash of distraction. He still manages to catch Juliet before she headbutts his leg and causes herself (more) brain damage. She’s got a sixth sense regarding where to aim; he wonders if it’s a sibling instinct.

Artemis does hate him. Once was a coincidence, but every time Artemis sees him, he wails (it’s the only time he wails). Butler still hasn’t tried to disentangle the grating on his nerves at the sound: whether it’s the crying, or the simple fact that Artemis dislikes him for some unknown reason. It almost makes him anxious. He’s had his fair share of principals who don’t want bodyguards, and he can still protect him, expert at staying out of sight, but this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Artemis is a Fowl, he is his Butler; it’s not just a job between them.

Butler sets Juliet down on her feet and ignores her tugging on his hair when he steps back. She likes to fight dirty and well, he has let it grow out while he’s been waiting for his principal to be born. “Again,” he tells Juliet, shifting into stance. “No tricks.” He already knows she won’t listen.

Artemis is with his parents, safe with his uncle there. Butler’s not going to quit and let the position fall to another. He’s rejected dozens of job offers while he waited for Artemis - dignitaries, royalty, billionaires - and while they won’t cry at the sight of him, they’re also not where he’s supposed to be.

He’ll win Artemis’s approval.

\--

Artemis is perfectly happy to accept gifts.

Just not when it’s Butler bearing them.

\--

He’s not allowed to play with Artemis either.

To be fair, Artemis hates Juliet handling all his toys too.

\--

Food doesn’t work.

Even freshly made baby food looks less appetizing than rations, so Butler can’t blame him.

\--

The first breakthrough comes in the dead of the night, one of the nanny’s nights off. It’s storming outside, and Butler can tell when Artemis wakes up. He doesn’t cry yet, but he’s restless and vaguely cranky, radiating displeasure at not knowing why he’s awake. Butler can picture the crinkled brow; he hasn’t been allowed close enough to know the expression in his eyes.

Lightning strikes, thunder crashing seconds later. There’s a shocked, pregnant pause before Artemis starts to cry.

Butler knows it’s an instinctive response, but he’s to the crib before he can make the decision to call someone else. In the dark between lightning strikes, he’s gotten Artemis cradled to his chest, back to the windows. He expects the next sound to be the distinct wail reserved for the sight of him, but Artemis stiffens at the sound of the next crack of thunder instead, and hides his face, tiny fists clenched in his sweater.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Butler tells Artemis, who doesn’t seem to mind being held, and loosens his grip at the sound of his voice. At least he ranks somewhere above mortal fear. Something in him settles; there’s no danger here right now (he scans to be sure), but he feels calmer than he did earlier, Artemis so close nothing could harm him.

They end up pacing, and Butler is careful not to let the lightning catch Artemis’s eyes. He fumbles for something else to say, the various stories for children about thunderstorms running through his mind. Angry gods and the earth’s sigh, but he should start with the truth, even if Artemis won’t understand a word he says. “It’s just static build up. The moist air rises, freezes when it meets the cold air and fills the clouds with electric charge. It has to come back down somehow.”

Butler considers. “There are stories though. Just stories, but there’s no harm in imagining it.”

Artemis listens to him long past the thunderstorm, only falling asleep during the fifth story, the tale of Nok Hasadee’s pranks. Butler turns the rocking chair so its back is to the wall. There’s no need to risk waking Artemis again.

In the morning, Artemis cries when he sees him, but the next night he wakes up, he gladly falls asleep in Butler’s arms under the cover of darkness.

\--

(Years later, Butler hears the tales again from Artemis, only with a hundred times more detail.)

\--

It continues like this for some months. Artemis no longer cries at the sight of him, but under the light of day, he won’t come near him without unhappy whimpers. When night falls though, Artemis accepts his presence. Maybe Butler’s just more comfortable a bed than his crib, his voice better ambient noise.

Ambient noise or not, In his spare time, Butler finds himself browsing the library, making sure he has a steady variety of fact to add in to the stories he’s heard on his travels. He’ll remember it less than twenty-four hours, and Artemis probably still doesn’t understand a word he says, but he doesn’t want to go and fill Artemis’s ears with false information.

\--

Butler wakes up to a bald head for April Fool’s day, courtesy of an unholy union between his uncle and his sister involving sleeping pills. He makes a note to be more alert and take over the food testing from his uncle.

“We did you a favor,” Juliet tells him seriously, with all the gravity of knowing she has the Major’s endorsement. “Your hair’s been looking like a dead muskrat.”

Butler grumbles and goes to shower. He had a military cut most of his training with Madame Ko, and he refuses to give them the satisfaction. He’ll seek revenge next year. For now, he has Artemis to worry about. He’s making motions to start crawling soon, and Butler isn’t looking forward to the occasion.

Later in the day, they have visitors over. Artemis is finally old enough to enter society informally, his parents decided, even if Butler doesn’t like it. More people to background check and discreetly pat down. And Artemis is only a baby, meaning he’ll be handled and cooed over like a particularly rare and expensive diamond. It is quite possibly the last thing Butler wants.

They flock around Artemis like vultures, and while Butler’s usually content to stay in a corner, he can’t, not with Artemis in a midst of baby talk (none of it his) and lack of autonomy. He wonders if he’s only imagining the tension in Artemis’s tiny body, fists clenched, but no; Butler decides he doesn’t care how much income is represented in the room, and starts to push through the crowd.

Artemis’s cry, shrill and irritated, splits the air.

Butler bursts through and kneels in front of Artemis, fully expecting the cry to change to one he knows. But Artemis quiets and studies him, gaze flicking up to his bald head and back down the way it always has, his little brow furrowed in confusion. Artemis seems to come to a decision and holds out his arms, the universal sign for “up” he’d learned and never made for Butler before. He’s only too glad to oblige.

On the way out, Artemis keeps looking at the top of Butler’s head like he expects him to sprout horns. Artemis has always radiated curiosity with his body, grasping hands and alertness, but for the first time, without the pitch black of night in the manor, and without Artemis averting his gaze and avoiding him during the day, Butler can see the light of it in the blue eyes he never outgrew.

“Do you want to go the library?” he asks Artemis, shifting him higher so he can look into his face, just to see if he’ll change his mind and look away or cry at the sight of him. Artemis doesn’t, but takes the opportunity to curiously pat the top of Butler’s head. His newly bare head.

Just in case, Butler decides to adds shaving his head to his routine, and takes Artemis to the library to find something to read out loud. He’ll let Artemis choose between fiction and non-fiction.

\--

The next few days, Artemis looks up at him, seems to find him acceptable, and then spends the day clinging to him like a koala. He radiates enough displeasure when they leave the library that Butler's voice grows hoarse.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise him that Artemis already has very strong opinions.


End file.
